Dealing with a Difficult Boss

By Daniela Bucatele

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March 29, 2018

Having a difficult boss is one of the most challenging work situations to deal with. Of course, in an ideal world, we would all have perfectly approachable, kind and appreciative managers. But anyone who has spent long enough in the working world will know that this is not the case. Bad bosses come in different forms, but in this article, we have compiled just a few of the ways that you can better deal with him or her.

Identify Your Bosses’ Motivation

All bosses are motivated by something, and the earlier you can identify what is driving your manager, the easier it will be to understand their motivations. Perhaps they are hell-bent on making the company grow quickly. Maybe they care about how the business looks to others. Or it could simply be that they are motivated by money. The first step to dealing with someone better is understanding where they are coming from.

Stay One Step Ahead

Once you have gotten to grips with your boss’ behaviour, the next thing to do is to stay one step ahead of them. For example, if you are dealing with a micromanager, you can start to anticipate and have their requests taken care of before they come to you. In this way, hopefully, they will start to learn that you are more than capable of doing your job without their constant involvement.

Identify Triggers

If you are trying to deal with a boss who has anger management issues, you should try to identify what their main triggers are and avoid setting them off in any way that you can. The last thing that you want to do is risk their wrath if you can help it. Of course, if this becomes a persistent problem, you should start to note the dates and times of their unreasonable behaviour. In extreme circumstances, you may need this information if you have to enlist the help of a wrongful termination lawyer. You need to stay protected in any way that you can.

Try Not to Let Them Affect Your Work

Though it may be very challenging, you should try your best not to let a bad boss negatively affect your work. Try to stay on good terms with the other leaders and management figures at your company. If you try to ‘even the score’, you are only likely to make things worse further down the line and this could negatively affect you in the future.

Avoid Future Bad Bosses

When you move to get away from your bad boss, the last thing that you want to happen is that you end up with another one. Do plenty of research ahead of time. There are plenty of useful company review websites out there such as Glassdoor which can help you out. If you can, talk to other members of staff in advance so that you can find out exactly what you are letting yourself in for.

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4 Comments

Ben

March 31, 2018

I think I’ve had more bad bosses than I’ve had good! Each one has left an impression on me and, in some way, helped me as I have made every effort not to behave like any of them when starting up my own business!

I think for so many of us who have worked in the working world for so long will also have experienced their fair share of bad bosses! What worries me is that there are more bad than good and for some people, bad bosses may be the only ones they’ll ever work with.

Anna-Marie

April 2, 2018

Just because you aren’t to everyone’s taste it doesn’t make you a bad boss as such, it’s more personal preference. But for those bosses who rule by bullying, you are a lousy boss period and should not be allowed to work in such a role!

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